Notre Dame-Belmont runs into big problem in CCS finals

Jas made her CCS championship-game debut to the tune of 22 points and 25 rebounds, a remarkable double-double that had NDB out of sorts all day long. Ten of her points came in the first quarter while Scotts Valley answered the Tigers’ early 3-0 lead with a 12-0 run. The Falcons never trailed again.

“She killed us on the rebounds and put-backs,” NDB head coach Sam Rossi said. “Even crashing, they were getting in transition a little bit, she was just coming straight down the lane and got the put-backs. She’s long, so you’ve got to box her out.

NDB (19-5) set the tone on defense with an aggressive 2-3 zone, and Scotts Valley went on to commit 24 turnovers in the contest. But the Tigers failed to turn any of their extra possessions into much of a flow, getting gummed up in clusters of Falcons defenders in the forecourt, while running into the dominant length of Jas when they got into the paint.

“She’s been doing it all year,” Scotts Valley head coach Stu Hurvitz said. “She’s controlling the rebounding, defending inside. She keeps teams from coming inside on us a lot.”

Kakala fought for six first-quarter points, and finished with 14 points and six rebounds, both team highs. But the tale of the tape doomed the Tigers on the boards, as Scotts Valley out-rebounded them 41-16 overall.

The Tigers found their rhythm a little to late, running backdoor routes to senior forward Anani Perez for effective layups in the fourth. The senior scored seven of her 11 points in the final quarter, and helped chop into the Scotts Valley, which fell to single digits when Kakala converted an and-1 to make it 48-40 with 1:03 to play.

“I think it was all just matchups,” Perez said. “We had to find what was working for us, and in the first half we weren’t really getting much in the paint. They were doing a really good job of keeping us out. But the second half they were kind of overplaying a little bit more, so we were trying to get those backdoors, anything that was open.”

The spirited fourth-quarter play by the Tigers helped them claw to a 34.7% shooting clip overall. NDB made just one field goal in the third quarter, but was 9 of 17 from the field in the fourth.

NDB added seven steals in the final period, including three from Kakala, and two apiece from Perez and junior guard Mika Cary.

“I think that’s just something our team has had all season,” Rossi said. “This is a special group. It’s actually the thing I did not have to worry about, was them working hard. We have to work on execution, but the energy part, those girls wanted it. Even with the score, they were still going to give us all they got.”

It proved too little time for NDB to finish off a miracle comeback, however, as Scotts Valley senior Samantha Rebert knocked down two free throws with under a minute to go to run the lead back to double digits.

Jas was hardly a one-woman show for Scotts Valley. Junior guard Hanna Shehorn totaled 16 points and eight rebounds, and sparked a 10-0 run with a 3-pointer midway through the first quarter to swing the Falcons ahead 5-3. They’d never trail again.

Rebbert added eight points, and senior guard Brooklyn Willams had seven.

NDB committed just 10 turnovers in the game, but couldn’t find a flow in the half-court for most of the day.

The Tigers were still in it midway through the second quarter, closing it to 22-18 when Kakala hit 1 of 2 free throws. NDB got the ball back when Rebbert was whistled for a charging call, and Kakala took aim from long range with a chance to cut the deficit to 1, but missed the 3. Scotts Valley finished the half on a 7-0 run, and pushed it to a 12-0 run extending into the third quarter.

“They did a really good job and took us out of what we wanted,” Rossi said. “They slowed us down. We like to push the ball ... and then we got tired, and stopped moving and cutting. That hurts our offense when we’re not moving.”

Cary netted 13 points for NDB, while Perez added 11.

It was an emotional loss for the Tigers, who were coming off one of their most anticipated wins of the season, a 39-31 victory over No.4 Menlo School in the CCS semifinals. It was a rematch of last year’s semis, when Menlo rolled to a 51-26 win en route to its fourth straight CCS Division IV championship.

“It might have taken our energy for today,” Rossi said.

The 11 a.m. tipoff didn’t help the energy either in what turned out to be an emotional loss for NDB’s players.

“I think that our team, we’re connected on a different level,” NDB senior Lizzie Johnson said. “We do everything together. This past week, we’ve had team dinners together every single day. We have celebrations for every single holiday. I think we’re connected on a level deeper on the court, which makes it so much deeper than any other level.”

The CCS finals appearance was the seventh all-time for NDB, and the first in the career of Rossi.

“I think we want to win for her, we want to win for each other,” Perez said. “This team’s really special, so we just wanted to get a banner up.”

The CCS banner marks the first in Scott Valley history for either the boys’ or girls’ teams. The Scotts Valley girls have made two previous trips to the CCS finals, including a loss to NDB in the Division IV championship game in 2010-11.